Foreword
Madeleine M Leininger
Professor Emeritus of Nursing, College of Nursing, Wayne State University, Detroit MI; University of Nebraska Medical Centre, College of Nursing, Omaha NE, United States of America; Founder, Transcultural Nursing & Human Care Research
PP: iii - v
Article Text
Transcultural nursing continues to expand worldwide to provide culturally congruent care to cultures that in the past have often been overlooked, avoided, feared, neglected, or misunderstood. From the beginning of transcultural nursing, the goal of this new discipline has been to provide humanistic, safe, and meaningful care to people of diverse cultures in the world. Slowly, this goal is being promoted and maintained by nurses and other health providers who have been prepared in the field. These transcultural nurses contend that all cultures have a right to have their values, beliefs, and lifeways recognised, respected, and upheld for their health and well-being.
It is most encouraging to have this Second Issue come forward to move further to examine contemporary trends and advances in transcultural nursing. Dr Akram Omeri and Dr Marilyn McFarland are to be commended for their leadership. For several decades, Dr Omeri has been an outstanding leader in multicultural Australia to prepare nurses to provide transcultural nursing care. She has been a very active leader to initiate undergraduate and graduate seminars for nurses and nursing students with field experiences in transcultural nursing. Dr Omeri has conducted several noteworthy and breakthrough research studies on local and indigenous cultures in Australia. These enthonursing research studies were the first of their kind in the country. As a consequence, Dr Omeri has served as an outstanding role model for research and education in transcultural nursing and to stimulate nurses to discover new ways to serve diverse cultures.
Dr Omeri was the first Australian nurse to obtain graduate preparation in transcultural nursing. She became the first certified transcultural nurse in Australia and provided a pathway to help local (including Indigenous) nurses to become transcultural nurses. Dr Omeri was the first to create the TCN-Cooperative Society (RCNA) which has been a very influential force nationally and internationally for transcultural nursing. She has been active in local, national and international transcultural programs through the Royal College of Australia's dynamic programs. She has been an outstanding role model, advocate and pioneer leader to open the doors to study and practice transcultural nursing. She was also the first to be awarded the Distinguished TCN Scholar Award by the Transcultural Nursing Society, and the prestigious Leininger Award in 1998. Dr Omeri has been active in many other ways to promote, maintain, and establish transcultural nursing standards of practice in teaching, research, and education. Her leadership in Australia has been outstanding and appreciated. This special issue of the Contemporary Nurse journal, Advances in Contemporary Transcultural Nursing, 2nd edition, is truly another creative venture from Professor Omeri.
Marilyn McFarland received her doctorate in nursing with a focus on transcultural nursing under the mentorship of Dr Madeleine Leininger at Wayne State University, Detroit MI (USA) in 1995, and is currently an associate professor of nursing at the University of Michigan-Flint, USA where she teaches at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Dr McFarland has directed her professional work toward the care and study of elders from diverse cultures throughout the United States. She is a former editor of the Journal of Transcultural Nursing and is active worldwide in the Transcultural Nursing Society. Dr McFarland also teaches transcultural nursing courses and presents her research findings about the culture care of elders locally, nationally and worldwide. As a Certified Transcultural Nurse and as an American Nurse Credentialing Center (ANCC) certified family nurse practitioner, Dr McFarland integrates transcultural knowledge and care into her primary care clinical practice.
This second edition of Advances in Contemporary Transcultural Nursing builds upon the first edition (Volume 15 Issue 3, October 2003). However, the second goes further and focuses on contemporary transcultural nursing practices, research and education to provide culturally congruent care. This is the central purpose and goal of transcultural nursing. Of special interest, this volume will focus on human rights of immigrants and refugees as they transition from one geopolitical and ecological area to many different places in the world. This transition is often very difficult as cultures move from very different environments in which political, economic, and cultural factors are extremely ambiguous and uncertain for immigrants. Transcultural nurses prepared through graduate education programs with guided mentoring experiences by qualified nurse instructors are skilled in ways to respond appropriately to immigrant care needs as they attempt to maintain their cultural beliefs and practices as they adapt to new lifeways.
Dr Omeri and Dr McFarland, as transcultural specialists, are keenly aware that historical and political factors play a major role in health and illness conditions for refugees and immigrants. These transcultural nursing specialists can identify diverse cultural forces that influence illness and well-being. They can help immigrants adjust to complex and difficult situations in meaningful ways. It is, therefore, encouraging that this issue will explicitly address these factors, especially human rights and cultural beliefs and values of immigrants and refugees.
In keeping with the philosophy and goals of transcultural nursing, specific cultural values, needs and practices of different cultures will be emphasized. In-depth studies of cultures will be essential to advance nursing care knowledge to provide culturally congruent care and to identify new practices that are beneficial to cultures. Accordingly, diverse theoretical approaches and both qualitative and quantitative research methods will be encouraged. In addition, the search for care universals or commonalities and diversities among and between cultures will continue to be explored in keeping with the nature and unique focus of transcultural nursing.
This second edition is most timely to advance transcultural nursing knowledge and to encourage interdisciplinary dialogue. Currently, many disciplines are just beginning to discover the importance of culturally congruent care and transcultural education and practice, so they will find this publication a welcome addition to their endeavors. As all health disciplines realise that globalisation is a major focus in our world, transcultural education and practice will be recognised as essential in our world today and in the future. Fortunately, the knowledge and practices of transcultural nursing established since the early 1950s will become more fully recognized and appreciated as globalisation increases and healthcare becomes transformed from largely a unicultural to a multicultural focus. This issue will show ways that transcultural nursing will be valued as a discipline to meet the essential needs of diverse cultures. Undoubtedly, many new insights and practices will be forthcoming from this edition as well as reaffirming knowledge and practices already established in transcultural nursing.
Dr Omeri and Dr McFarland are to be applauded for the issue and its special transcultural foci. I welcome the contribution of authors to this transcultural nursing publication in order to advance the status of the discipline.
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